Report 353
Report #353 Skillset: Geomancy Skill: Sickening Org: Geomancers Status: Completed Mar 2010 Furies' Decision: Rockslide damage very slightly increased and sickening changed to a level 2 malus. Problem: A few months ago the damage on rockslide while prone was effectively halved at the same time as the warrior formula revamp. While it still does damage, of course, it's no longer enough to make a difference in a psionic offense (the most common pattern you see for a mage). Sickening, which gives an affliction that acts as a small sip penalty, was always one of the less useful geomancy effects. Now that the damage is so easy to keep up with, Sickening is practically meaningless. Indeed, I feel Geomancy is now worse off than even Aquamancy (which is saying something, since they lost currents), having similar hindering power, but instead of healing/curing, it has hunger, a tactic entirely negatable by spending gold beforehand. Since I'm almost positive the admin do not intend for geomancy to have healing/curing, I will not even bother to suggest that (though, from a purely balance standpoint, I feel it would suffice). Instead, I will offer solutions that help aspects of geomancer combat outside of the all but antiquated geo damage, and most of all create enough value for the sickening affliction to make people actually consider spending focus spirit on it, as currently it is far better curing-wise to just ignore it. 0 R: 0 Solution #1: Change the effect of sickening to periodically give quicksand (sort of like an earth treebane, eg. "You stumble as the earth churns below you, causing you to fall into a patch of quicksand."). I suggest that the first tick happen 5 seconds after the affliction is given, then every 15 seconds from there on. That will result in 2-3 hits of quicksand if sickening is not cured, depending on the duration of sickening (which is somewhat random.). Note that you can tumble while in quicksand, which is something you've always had to do for stonewalls if you lacked leap. 0 R: 0 Solution #2: Change sickening to slow balance and equilibrium by 1 second a piece. 0 R: 0 Solution #3: Change sickening to give a semi-masked affliction every 8 seconds until cured, some rather serious, some not. Suggested list: gluttony, deadening, clumsiness, dementia, disloyalty, weakness, and relapsing. Player Comments: ---on 3/15 @ 23:00 writes: On second glance it's probably not so clear, but none of these solutions change the actual Sickening demesne effect in that it gives a focus spirit affliction every 40 seconds. What changes in each solution is only the effect of the affliction itself. ---on 3/15 @ 23:34 writes: Er... the geomancer demesne is most definitely not "antiquated" or "worse than the aquademesne". You're right that the damage is no longer completely overpowered, but it's certainly not meaningless when used in combination with other damage effects-- such as, say, friends / boulderblast. Further, slowing equilibrium and balance is insane when stacked on with, for example, Freeze and warrior attacks that knock people off-balance. The rockslide thing was a necessary damage adjustment, but it by no means killed the geomancer demesne. :/ ---on 3/15 @ 23:38 writes: I must thoroughly disagree with the notion that Geomancy of all the melding specializations is suffering so badly that it needs another offensive boost as suggested by this report. With recent changes to bring another affliction on top of the already high damage output of the meld (yes, blindness on Duststorm is something Id say is a reliable boost), I do not believe that the introduction of the possibility of changing Sickenings effect towards more afflicting on top of the substantial stun or damage is needed by the class. And the suggestion of placing another hindering mechanic (on top of Rubble, Duststorm, and Stonewalls) would just overall tip the scales even further on getting out of the meld. Finally, Id rather not see two levels of equilibrium and balance maluses tossed on top of each other in a class working together with Necroscreams TaintedLove. ---on 3/24 @ 07:23 writes: Use all the ellipses and exasperated tone you like! I see no compelling reason why Sickening should remain as is. The sip malus is quite small when considered on its own, and given the rockslide nerf, it no longer even has synergy with the rest of the meld. Keep in mind, the effects I described in my solutions only appear if the sickening affliction is not cured. And indeed that was my goal, to retool the affliction so that one would feel some pressure to cure it, instead of ignoring it as is currently the favoured response.